Kit: No. BP6
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Hasegawa, distributed by Marco Polo Import, 532 S. Coralridge Pl., City of Industry, CA 91746
Price: $19.98
Comments: Injection molded, 92 parts, decals.
Able Dog; AD; SPAD - all handles for Douglas' famous follow-on attack aircraft to the SBD Dauntless. I was one of many Navy aviators who flew and loved the Skyraider, and I'm happy to see a new kit in my favorite scale.
Hasegawa's kit represents the A-1H/J (AD-6/AD-7), the final developments of the Single-Place AD (one reported source of the term "SPAD"). It's cleanly molded in light gray plastic with crisp recessed panel lines and excellent detail, particularly the external armor plating around the aircraft center section. Exhaust-flame shields and external cockpit steps are molded on, but one step in my kit had broken off. Two sets of cowl flaps are molded separately.
The kit comes with three underwing fuel tanks and two pairs of SUU-14 CBU dispensers. I suspect they are Air Force weapons as I can't find photos of them mounted on Navy A-1s in any of my references. You may want to leave off the nose cowl flaps to show off the well-detailed engine.
Hasegawa re-creates the look of the Skyraider, but the rudder is too high at the rear; a few swipes with a file will fix it. It's difficult to correct the shape of the prop blades; they are too narrow at the tips but I left them alone since I like their shape better than the originals.
Hasegawa has molded the six-degree offset to the fin, but it is subtle and hard to spot. The two-piece canopy is thick but optically clear, and the windshield is too narrow for its mounting area on the fuselage.
Building the Skyraider was a pleasure - for the most part. I had trouble cleaning up the top fuselage seam around the dorsal antennas. I ended up cutting a Flex-i-File sanding strip into a narrow ribbon to work on the seam. Also, the bottom of the fuselage just behind the trailing edge of the wing bows in and creates a step to the wing. Place a piece of sprue inside the fuselage to force the bottom down a tad.
I sanded a little around the cowl ring and carburetor air scoop, but otherwise, the parts fit was excellent.
The cockpit interior is good and includes a decal panel and consoles. The seat is simple but doesn't capture the bucket shape of the real thing.
There are a few coloring errors in the instructions. You won't need to paint the entire fuselage interior dark gull gray; just paint the cockpit area. The tail-wheel well should be gloss white. The top color should be flat light gull gray, not gloss as stated. The markings diagrams show the panels forward of the ailerons painted white; they should be gray. Also, the leading edges of the wings, stabilizers, fin, cowling, and drop-tank pylons were Corogard (a dull aluminum color), not dark gull gray. A diagram shows the correct propeller tip coloration of white/red/white, but the rear face of the blades had 6"-wide yellow tips.
The static boom on the vertical tail and the 20mm cannons are molded on, so avoid breaking them. All external racks are separate pieces with individual sway braces. The drop-tank braces are tiny and easy to lose, so work over a box top.
The landing gear is well done except the main-gear drag braces (shrink links) are missing. Hasegawa's wheel hubs are correct for the Navy version and they are keyed so the brakes orient properly to the struts.
The SUU tubes are delicate and difficult to clean up. The open ends face to the rear, not forward as the built-up model in the instructions shows. I airbrushed mine Alclad shade O with a thin yellow decal stripe around the forward end cap.
I used Gunze Sangyo aqueous colors for the paint scheme, then used Alclad O for the Corogard leading edges.
The slightly thick decals provide markings for brightly colored A-1s from VA-52 and VA-145. They are beautifully printed and responded well to setting solution. I weathered my model with a dark wash to accent the panels, and depicted the prominent exhaust stains with airbrushed Gunze H20 clear flat mixed with a few drops of black.
The finished model scales out right on the money in length and about nine inches short in span, but it sits right, looks right, and captures the A-1's presence. My references include a flight manual and numerous books on the A-1. I spent about 20 hours on my Skyraider. I wouldn't recommend Hasegawa's kit to beginners because of the tiny parts and minor inaccuracies in the instructions, but experienced modelers will love it.
Walt Fink